Home » The History
The History of Mount Kinabalu Climbing
Mount
Kinabalu
towers 4095 meters
(13,435 feet) above sea level. It is the highest mountain between the
mighty snow-capped Himalayas
and Wilhelmina
(4509 meters / 14,793 feet)
in Irian
Jaya. It is also one of the
most accessible and spectacular
mountains in the world. Because of the earth movement, in is still
growing with the rate of 5 mm (1/4 inches) a year.
Ever changing, it
is
the mountain of tropical rainforest, colorful blossoms and golden
sunset,
but also dark and violent storms. At times, a ghostly mist
shrouds the mountain and it is easy to believe the local Kadazandusun's
claim that it is the homeland of their spirit world.
In
1964 Kinabalu
Park was
established
to protect Mount
Kinabalu and its plant and
animal life. Its 754 square
kilometer (291 square mile) terrain stretches upward from lowland
rain forest to montane forest, cloud forest and sub alpine meadow,
before
finally reaching a crown
of bare
granite. Only at Mount Kinabalu
can
you eat breakfast in a lowland
rainforest, lunch in a cloud forest,
and
enjoy dinner in a subalpine
meadow!
The trail to the
highest peak winds
along the southern side of the mountain. It is an 8.5 kilometer (5.25
mile) trek to the top. For most people, from a 9 month-old baby
(carried by father) to an 83 years-old New Zealander, the journey takes
two days.
The Kinabalu
Park Headquarters is
located 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah's
capital
city. More than one million
visitors have enjoyed the park since it
opened. In the year 2000, UNESCO
have declared Mount
Kinabalu
as The World
Heritage Site.
Today's
relatively comfortable two day climb to the peak is a far cry from the
travails of the early explorers. In 1851, Sir Hugh Low,
then the
Colonial Secretary for the British crown colony of Labuan,
credited as
the first person to climb the mountain, took nine days to reach the summit plateau,
traveling in a group of 42 people.
Low
and John
Whitehead, a zoologist
who discovered two of Kinabalu's
spectacular birds, Whitehead's Trogon
and Whitehead's
Broadbill, both
started their historic ascents from the village of Kiau, situated on
the southern flank of the mountain near the Kadamaian Waterfall
and
recruited their guides and porters here. This route was both steep and
arduous, and when the park was gazetted in 1964 and the Kinabalu Park
HQ
was
established, the ascent route was changed to the present one.
People
from the nearer village of Bundu
Tuhan
supplied most of the guides and
porters, and Bundu Tuhan's
most famous son, Gunting
bin Lagadan,
reputed to possess remarkable powers, become the first officially
registered park guide. Though Low
reached the summit plateau, he did
not reach the peak that now bears his name. John Whitehead
is the first
person who reached the summit in 1888.
Low
discoveries
focused the attention of the scientific world on Mount Kinabalu,
but it was not until 1910 that the first botanist (and
incidentally the first lady) Lilian
Gibbs,
climbed the mountain and
discovered many species new to science. Increasing interest in the
mountain's natural richness culminated in major expeditions organized
by the Royal
Society of Great Britain in
1961 and 1964.
Thus it was that
in 1964 the Kinabalu
Park was gazetted and when
the
park first opened it was a far cry from the world class facility it is
today. In the early years the road to the park was largely a narrow
muddy earth track, passable only to 4-wheel drive vehicle. This
restricted access to real enthusiasts, but when the road was finally
sealed in 1981 visitor figures shot
up.
Today more than 200,000 people
visit the park each year. Of these, about ten percent have successfully
reached the summit. Within the last few years
however, an increasing
number have come to enjoy more strenuous activities, including Mount
Kinabalu
Climbathon,
mountain running and mountain biking.
Prev<<<Home
Next>>>The Legends
drizad |Back to Top
Home » The History
